General
open outcry
What does open outcry mean?
The old-school way exchanges matched orders: traders in coloured jackets stood in a pit and screamed bids and offers at each other, backed up by hand signals so the noise didn't matter. Mostly extinct now — screens ate the floor — but the CME held on to a few pits well into the 2010s.
"My uncle traded gold via open outcry at COMEX for twenty years before the algos took it."
Origin
Exchange floor practice dating to the 19th century; the phrase predates electronic trading by a hundred years.
Frequently asked questions
What does "open outcry" mean?
It's pit trading done by shouting and hand signals on an exchange floor.
How do you use "open outcry" in a sentence?
"Before screens took over, everything ran on open outcry in the pits."
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